Russian Federation (Satomi Maiden ~ Third Power)
The Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация) is a country in northern Eurasia, ruled as a semi presidential republic with Moscow and Kiev as its two capital cities. Moscow is one of the most populous cities in the world with over 17,000,000 people as of 2017. At 22,402,200 km2 (8,649,500 sq mi), it is the largest country in the world by total area. With a population of over 325,000,000, it is the world's fifth most populous country. The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the eastern; about 77% of the population live in European Russia. Other major cities includes Kiev with over 10,000,000 poeple, Saint Petersburg with 6,300,000 people, Baku with 3,300,000 people, Tashkent with 3,000,000 people and Minsk with 2,300,000 people. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms. It borders Finland to the northwest, Poland, Slovakia, Austria-Hungary and Yugoslavia to the west, Turkey and Iran to the southwest, Tatarstan and Republic of China to the south, Republic of Korea to the southeast, and the Empire of Japan to the east. The East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, the medieval state of Rus arose in the 9th century. In 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus' ultimately disintegrated into a number of smaller states; most of the Rus' lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion and became tributaries of the nomadic Golden Horde in the 13th century. The Grand Duchy of Moscow gradually reunified the surrounding Russian principalities, achieved independence from the Golden Horde, and came to dominate the cultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus'. By the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation, and exploration to become the Russian Empire, which was the third largest empire in history, stretching from Poland on the west to Alaska on the east. Following the Russian Revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic became the largest and leading constituent of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union, the world's first constitutionally socialist state. The Soviet Union played a decisive role in the Allied victory in World War II, and emerged as a recognized superpower and rival to the Empire of Japan during the Cold War. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the world's first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the mid-1980s, the Soviet Union had the world's second largest economy, largest standing military in the world and the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1985, the Russian Federation emerged from the USSR after the Russian SFSR reconstituted itself as the Russian Federation and is recognized as the continuing legal personality and sole successor state of the Soviet Union. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic. The Russian economy ranks as the third largest by nominal GDP and second largest by purchasing power parity in 2017. Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it the world's leading producer of oil and natural gas globally. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Russia is one of the world's five recognized superpowers. It is permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, as well as a member of the G20, the Council of Europe, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as being the leading member of the European Union and the Wawsaw Pact. Category:Nations (Satomi Maiden ~ Third Power) Category:Russian Federation (Satomi Maiden ~ Third Power) Category:Satomi Maiden ~ Third Power